My sister Renée and my girlfriend Natalia took the bus to visit me for a few weeks in the summer.
While I can say that the two of them together are "a bit much", it was a wonderful treat to have
both of them here.

The girls in Portland

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Apparently, my mom found this old pirate scarf in the tickle trunk and sent it along with Renée. I
think Natalia looks great in pirate garb.

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Renée showing off her new iPod with, of course, her favourite pose.

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While I must admit that I was a little surprised to find this picture on my camera, I did laugh.
I guess the girls brought down a pirate from McDonald's and here he is riding my gear shifter.

Crown Trophy I went in to get some engraving done for my door knocker, and the girls
went a little nuts with my camera.

Sauvie Island

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The kids and I took a drive out to Sauvie Island, initially to go pick fruit. We didn't find any
fruit to pick on a Sunday, so we stopped in at the beach to hang out. Here are Renée and Nati
on the "trailer trash beach".

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Nati and I enjoying another beautiful summer day in Portland.

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I'm not sure about Tim's pose here. I think he's trying to fart on the flowers.

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So, the whole goal of going to Sauvie Island was to go pick fruit, something neither Renée nor
Natalia had done. It turns out that Sunday is a bad day for U-pick fruit being open, so here's
Renée stealing an unripe peach.

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We all got together to welcome Jordan home from his father's funeral in Birmingham. The Gormans
hosted a great BBQ and then we all surprised him at the airport. This is Renée and Tim in the
Gorman's backyard.

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Renée with the Gorman's neighbour's yard. It's a little bit over the top.

Fun in the sun

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The girls are idiots when it comes to worshiping the sun. Here they are sporting their trophies.
These trophies were garnished at the Beaverton waterpark by the library.

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Since I couldn't take the whole month of July off, I did have to work a day or two when the girls
were here. One day, I sent them off to learn how to use public transit to get downtown. Here is
Natalia learning to take the Max.

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Natalia and the elephant on Park and Burnside downtown. Similar to this picture:
ELEPHANT .

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This is possibly one of the coolest thank-you cards I've ever received. This came from
Ruby "soon-to-be-an-engineer" Disko for her graduation gift of Lego and old engineering T-shirts.

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Violet playing with her new cell phone. I actually think that this was the straw that finally
broke down Natalia since it wasn't more than a week after this when Natalia (24 years old) bought
her first cell phone!

Getting tattoos with Renée

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Since I had gotten my first tattoo with Ian Maclaurin in Jasper by a guy named Megabot in his basement,
it was a little faded and not that even. Renée also wasn't happy with hers, so we went in to get our
tats redone by Robin, a Canadian from Edson, AB. As you can see here, it wasn't really a pain-free experience.

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Renée's tattoo had almost faded to obscurity. This is the 'before' shot.

Portland Brewfest

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Lisa Hansen and Jeff Hemphill also joined us for a few at the Brewfest. It's also one of their
favourite events.

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Renée also discovered a new "treat" - Beer Chips. The Portland Brewfest was one of the first launch
sites for this new drinking snack. They've got a website up, but that's it so far: BEER CHIPS .
The look on her face expresses the "This used to be full before Natalia got a hold of it!" feeling.

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Renée and some of her new drinking friends. Apparently that raspberry wheat beer made her think she was
everyone's best friend.

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Especially THIS guy! Judging from the ball and chain, you can see that he's on his bachelor party.
The shirt was signed by all of the women who kissed him that night. Renée, what's your name doing on there?

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Well, we're back where we started. Do you think the girls packed enough? A terrible 30-some
hour bus trip was ahead of them, but they don't seem fazed do they? Thanks for coming girls!